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After crossing the Canadian mainland I had just a couple of days left before catching the plane YYZ to DUS. I took the night ferry from Sydney to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and spent another day in the Car crossing that amazing Island.

Arriving in St. John’s late at night I found a nice place to spend the night.. as I noticed in the morning I slept at the most easterly point of Canada, Cape Spear. The morning walk around the cape was unbelivebly cold, but as the sun slowly made it’s way through the dense cover of clouds I guess I was able to make some of the nicest photographs of the whole journey..

So what do I take from the drive? As I said before, Canada is a freaking HUGE country. Especially if you cross it touching the ground. Hitchhiking into Canmore, in the Rockies I met someone who walked all the way, St. John’s to Tofino. Took him 10 Months. I can only imagine what an amazing trip it must have been.. Then it’s a pretty diverse and beautiful country! Mountains, lakes, prairie, oceans, islands, huge cities with lots of traffic, then again that vast emptiness with no one else around, awesome, friendly and helpful people. There’s so much to explore, you better start now!

Getting back to catch my plane in Toronto was a bit of a journey.. David from Hittheroad.ca offered me a ride I just could not resist. Picking up a car in Edmonton, Alberta and driving it all the way to St. John’s, Newfoundland. Yes, you’ve heard it right.. to the most easterly point of Canada. 6500km !

I ended up picking it up in Fort McMurray, deep in the Oil fields of northern Alberta and the fun began. Driving about 12 hours every day for about 7 days and then slowing down a little in eastern Canada. I can tell you now, Canada is a BIG Country!

When asked about the best way to travel and see a country I would have answered “hitchhiking !!! ” for a long time.. and I would still say hitchhiking is one of the best ways to travel. what are the advantages?

Well, if you’re flexible enough you’ll get to places you would have never imagined to go to. local people pick you up and tell you interesting stuff about the area, so you really get to know the country you’re travelling through. That’s how I got to know about Kennedy lake and saltspring island for example. The path you travel can be changed a lot, depending on who picks you up and the destination he (or she, but getting picked up by women ist extremely rare!) is heading. Then you meet lots and lots of interesting people. the main reason I guess is that those boring ones don’t pick you up, especially when hitchiking with your thumb up along the highway.. Then you can always get dropped off if you like some place along the road. Try to tell that to the driver of the greyhound. I guess you’ll have a hard time to get out of that one.. Obviously there’s a bit of an financial advantage, cause you don’t have to pay for your ticket. Then you don’t have to wait for a bus to leave, don’t have to get up at 4am to catch the first bus at 5am or wait for another 24 hours if you missed the only bus leaving that town in the middle of nowhere for the day. Or for the week.

But.. on my return trip east i discovered a different way that has some advantages too. You might want to be flexible as well but if you are you’ll gain some flexibility on your trip too.

The deal is you’ll get a car plus usually enough money for gas to take that car from some pickup to some dropoff point. In my case that was a free ride from Winnipeg to Ottawa. With enough time for lots of stops along that beautifull highway #17 through northern Ontario. Sounds too good to be true, right? Check out hittheroad.ca for more infos. David is always looking for drivers!

So this deal get’s me to a new question.. what do you do when driving 2200km by yourself? First of all I quess you put some nice music on and make youself as comfortable as possible in the drivers seat. Then you migth wanna check out how far you can drive a car without using your hands.. i’ve made it to 60km until I stoped at one of those thousands of amazin lakes of northern Ontario. You should definitely get some yammie munchies for the way.. and then, of course.. how about picking up hitchhikers and giving some of that luck back that you’ve always made a profit of when hitchhiking yourself. I was able to give a lot of that back by giving a ride for more than 2000km. Thank’s again for your companie Bob!